The Kindle Fire is an enhanced edition of Amazon?s authentic Kindle, which was launched in 2007 and immediately became a common bestseller around the world. This Kindle Fire assessment offers you the run down on Amazon?s newest solution aimed with the tablet reader industry. A number of the new enhancements additional for the?Kindle Fire review [...]
The CDC estimated a 1% worldwide prevalence for autism spectrum disorders (ASD). In the United States, 1 out of 88 kids is diagnosed with ASD (according to data from a survey conducted in 2008). Autism spectrum disorders are characterized by diminished social interaction skills, stereotypic engagement in repetitive tasks, lengthy visual engagement with a target, refusal to deviate from set rituals and diminished spontaneity in expressing emotions. In addition to behavioral difficulties, reduced motor abilities are also reported.
In a recent review, Bhat, Landa and Galloway examined evidence to show that children who are at risk for ASD had deficient motor capabilities. Movements like non-uniform gait, variable stride length when walking, and underperformance in aiming tasks are evident in children who are diagnosed with ASD. Cognitive impairment is also evident in these kids. There is evidence to show that children who do not suffer from a cognitive lag but yet underperform on tasks that require physical balance and coordination of limbs may be later diagnosed as suffering from ASD.
Impaired motor coordination may also be assessed in the early years. Retrospective analyses of home videos of kids diagnosed with ASD in later years demonstrate that delayed motor skills may be judged in the first two years of childhood. Delayed development of gross motor skills like walking at the age of 24 months or more can be a sign of ASD. Likewise, delayed development of fine motor skills in the early years can also point towards the existence of ASD.
In order to address the issue, early interventions with physical therapy have been recommended. Koenig, Buckley-Reen and Garg have assessed the impact of a early yoga training program in schoolkids with ASD. In their study, kids with ASD were trained in yoga in a classroom-based program (Get Ready To Learn Yoga or GRTL) on a daily basis for 16 weeks. A control group of kids with ASD was allowed to complete a normal school morning routine. These researchers report that that at the end of 16 weeks, children in the GRTL yoga program showed reduced maladjustive behaviors as compared to those in the control group. Behavioral patterns were assessed by teachers with the aid of the Aberrant Behavior Checklist. These results indicate that classroom based physical therapy interventions may help to reduce behavioral deficiencies in kids suffering from ASD.
In another study, exercises from a martial arts technique called Kata were taught to children aged 5 to 16 diagnosed with ASD. Thirty children with ASD were selected and divided equally into control and intervention groups. Kids in the intervention group were trained in Kata techniques for 56 sessions spanning 14 weeks. Stereotypic behavior was assessed prior to and post-intervention. The results showed that the intervention group showed a reduction in stereotypic behaviors. An interesting find from this study is that the effects of martial arts training persisted even after a hiatus of 30 days during which no practice sessions were conducted.
Individuals suffering from ASD learn better from demonstrative techniques than from conceptual or instructive learning methods. Therefore, group therapy sessions where the participants are asked to learn by observing the actions of a leader are more likely to succeed in children suffering from ASD. It may be useful to integrate group activities?such as dance training, yoga, or elementary martial arts training in the curricula of early learning institutions to improve motor and behavioral functions in children with ASD.
References
Capone GT, Grados MA, Kaufmann WE, Bernad-Ripoll S, & Jewell A (2005). Down syndrome and comorbid autism-spectrum disorder: characterization using the aberrant behavior checklist. American journal of medical genetics. Part A, 134 (4), 373-80 PMID: 15759262
Koenig KP, Buckley-Reen A, & Garg S (2012). Efficacy of the Get Ready to Learn yoga program among children with autism spectrum disorders: a pretest-posttest control group design. The American journal of occupational therapy : official publication of the American Occupational Therapy Association, 66 (5), 538-46 PMID: 22917120
Bahrami F, Movahedi A, Marandi SM, & Abedi A (2012). Kata techniques training consistently decreases stereotypy in children with autism spectrum disorder. Research in developmental disabilities, 33 (4), 1183-93 PMID: 22502844
Contact: Karen Kreeger karen.kreeger@uphs.upenn.edu 215-349-5658 University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine
PHILADELPHIA Lung diseases such as asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) are on the rise, according to the American Lung Association and the National Institutes of Health.
These ailments are chronic, affect the small airways of the lung, and are thought to involve an injury-repair cycle that leads to the breakdown of normal airway structure and function. For now, drugs for COPD treat only the symptoms.
"A healthy lung has some capacity to regenerate itself like the liver," notes Ed Morrisey, Ph.D., professor of Medicine and Cell and Developmental Biology and the scientific director of the Penn Institute for Regenerative Medicine in the Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania. "In COPD, these reparative mechanisms fail."
Morrisey is looking at how epigenetics controls lung repair and regeneration. Epigenetics involves chemical modifications to DNA and its supporting proteins that affect gene expression. Previous studies found that smokers with COPD had the most significant decrease in one of the enzymes controlling these modifications, called HDAC2.
"HDAC therapies may be useful for COPD, as well as other airway diseases," he explains. "The levels of HDAC2 expression and its activity are greatly reduced in COPD patients. We believe that decreased HDAC activity may impair the ability of the lung epithelium to regenerate."
Using genetic and pharmacological approaches, they showed that development of progenitor cells in the lung is specifically regulated by the combined function of two highly related HDACs, HDAC/1 and /2. Morrisey and colleagues published their findings in this week's issue of Developmental Cell.
By studying how HDAC activity, as well as other epigenetic regulators, controls lung development and regeneration, they hope to develop new therapies to alleviate the unmet needs of patients with asthma and COPD.
HDAC1/2 deficiency leads to a loss of expression of the key transcription factor, a protein called Sox2, which in turn leads to a block in airway epithelial cell development. This is affected in part by deactivating a repressor of expression (derepressing) of two other proteins, Bmp4 and the tumor suppressor Rb1 - targets of HDAC1/2.
In the adult lung, loss of HDAC1/2 leads primarily to increased expression of inhibitors of cell proliferation including the proteins Rb1, p16, and p21. This results in decreased epithelial proliferation in lung injury and inhibition of regeneration.
Together, these data support a critical role for HDAC-mediated mechanisms in regulating both development and regeneration of lung tissue. Since HDAC inhibitors and activators are currently in clinical trials for other diseases, including cancer, such compounds could be tested in the future for efficacy in COPD, acute lung injury, and other lung diseases that involve defective repair and regeneration, says Morrisey.
###
This work was funded by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (HL071589, HL087825, HL100405, HL110942) and the Lung Repair and Regeneration consortium, funded by the NHLBI.
Penn Medicine is one of the world's leading academic medical centers, dedicated to the related missions of medical education, biomedical research, and excellence in patient care. Penn Medicine consists of the Raymond and Ruth Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania (founded in 1765 as the nation's first medical school) and the University of Pennsylvania Health System, which together form a $4.3 billion enterprise.
The Perelman School of Medicine is currently ranked #2 in U.S. News & World Report's survey of research-oriented medical schools. The School is consistently among the nation's top recipients of funding from the National Institutes of Health, with $479.3 million awarded in the 2011 fiscal year.
The University of Pennsylvania Health System's patient care facilities include: The Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania -- recognized as one of the nation's top "Honor Roll" hospitals by U.S. News & World Report; Penn Presbyterian Medical Center; and Pennsylvania Hospital the nation's first hospital, founded in 1751. Penn Medicine also includes additional patient care facilities and services throughout the Philadelphia region.
Penn Medicine is committed to improving lives and health through a variety of community-based programs and activities. In fiscal year 2011, Penn Medicine provided $854 million to benefit our community.
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Contact: Karen Kreeger karen.kreeger@uphs.upenn.edu 215-349-5658 University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine
PHILADELPHIA Lung diseases such as asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) are on the rise, according to the American Lung Association and the National Institutes of Health.
These ailments are chronic, affect the small airways of the lung, and are thought to involve an injury-repair cycle that leads to the breakdown of normal airway structure and function. For now, drugs for COPD treat only the symptoms.
"A healthy lung has some capacity to regenerate itself like the liver," notes Ed Morrisey, Ph.D., professor of Medicine and Cell and Developmental Biology and the scientific director of the Penn Institute for Regenerative Medicine in the Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania. "In COPD, these reparative mechanisms fail."
Morrisey is looking at how epigenetics controls lung repair and regeneration. Epigenetics involves chemical modifications to DNA and its supporting proteins that affect gene expression. Previous studies found that smokers with COPD had the most significant decrease in one of the enzymes controlling these modifications, called HDAC2.
"HDAC therapies may be useful for COPD, as well as other airway diseases," he explains. "The levels of HDAC2 expression and its activity are greatly reduced in COPD patients. We believe that decreased HDAC activity may impair the ability of the lung epithelium to regenerate."
Using genetic and pharmacological approaches, they showed that development of progenitor cells in the lung is specifically regulated by the combined function of two highly related HDACs, HDAC/1 and /2. Morrisey and colleagues published their findings in this week's issue of Developmental Cell.
By studying how HDAC activity, as well as other epigenetic regulators, controls lung development and regeneration, they hope to develop new therapies to alleviate the unmet needs of patients with asthma and COPD.
HDAC1/2 deficiency leads to a loss of expression of the key transcription factor, a protein called Sox2, which in turn leads to a block in airway epithelial cell development. This is affected in part by deactivating a repressor of expression (derepressing) of two other proteins, Bmp4 and the tumor suppressor Rb1 - targets of HDAC1/2.
In the adult lung, loss of HDAC1/2 leads primarily to increased expression of inhibitors of cell proliferation including the proteins Rb1, p16, and p21. This results in decreased epithelial proliferation in lung injury and inhibition of regeneration.
Together, these data support a critical role for HDAC-mediated mechanisms in regulating both development and regeneration of lung tissue. Since HDAC inhibitors and activators are currently in clinical trials for other diseases, including cancer, such compounds could be tested in the future for efficacy in COPD, acute lung injury, and other lung diseases that involve defective repair and regeneration, says Morrisey.
###
This work was funded by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (HL071589, HL087825, HL100405, HL110942) and the Lung Repair and Regeneration consortium, funded by the NHLBI.
Penn Medicine is one of the world's leading academic medical centers, dedicated to the related missions of medical education, biomedical research, and excellence in patient care. Penn Medicine consists of the Raymond and Ruth Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania (founded in 1765 as the nation's first medical school) and the University of Pennsylvania Health System, which together form a $4.3 billion enterprise.
The Perelman School of Medicine is currently ranked #2 in U.S. News & World Report's survey of research-oriented medical schools. The School is consistently among the nation's top recipients of funding from the National Institutes of Health, with $479.3 million awarded in the 2011 fiscal year.
The University of Pennsylvania Health System's patient care facilities include: The Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania -- recognized as one of the nation's top "Honor Roll" hospitals by U.S. News & World Report; Penn Presbyterian Medical Center; and Pennsylvania Hospital the nation's first hospital, founded in 1751. Penn Medicine also includes additional patient care facilities and services throughout the Philadelphia region.
Penn Medicine is committed to improving lives and health through a variety of community-based programs and activities. In fiscal year 2011, Penn Medicine provided $854 million to benefit our community.
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
At one point, the young?Joseph Ratzinger looked like a budding church reformer. By the time he abdicated as pope this week, he had become one of the stoutest defenders of Catholic tradition.
By Robert Marquand,?Staff writer / February 13, 2013
Pope Benedict XVI attends Ash Wednesday mass at the Vatican Wednesday. Thousands of people are expected to gather in the Vatican for Pope Benedict's Ash Wednesday mass, which is expected to be his last before leaving office at the end of February.
Alessandro Bianchi/Reuters
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By the time Pope Benedict XVI made his surprise announcement to abdicate, his image had become fixed as one of the stoutest defenders of tradition and an arch-enemy of change, liberality, and the reforming intent of the Vatican II council. But at the start of his career, he looked as if he might be a budding reformer himself. ?
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Worshippers crowded in to get a glimpse of Pope Benedict XVI at his last public mass at St. Peter's Basilica in Rome.
The pope, then Joseph Ratzinger, collaborated on changes during Vatican II with Karl Rahner, a Jesuit star from Munich who in the 1970s was talked about as pope material in liberal circles. Mr. Rahner advocated women?s ordination, supported seekers in churches outside the Catholic faith, and his theology arced more toward a universal spirituality than institutional rules, emphasizing ?a?human search for meaning ? rooted in the unlimited horizon of God?s own being experienced within the world.?
The young Ratzinger in the 1960s was brought to Tubingen University partly by Catholic theologian Hans Kung (later censored for views bordering on heresy) and taught in a progressive Protestant-Catholic faculty.?
Ratzinger's first faculty lecture at Tubingen, eagerly awaited and still remembered today, stressed the importance of the interpretation of the Bible via church fathers of the pre-medieval era, at a time of relative excitement in scholarly circles over new "subjective" and "spiritual" interpretations of scripture. Mr. Kung was disappointed, his colleagues remember.?
Later in the mid-1960s Ratzinger experienced student campus protests firsthand. For a shy scholar whose vision of church was hewn in the clean and well-ordered Alpine villages of Bavaria ? the experience deeply soured him on change as well as the often excessive experiments of Vatican II to open the church up "to the modern world," as the saying went.?
Vatican II was heady days at a time of ferment, but neither Ratzinger nor the church he eventually led, ever made the leap. Faced with a changing world, Benedict opted for a church of greater purity and reliance on past traditions ??even as his tenure will be marked by a priestly child abuse scandal that two years ago was described as the biggest challenge faced by Rome since the Reformation.
Yesterday Vatican officials affirmed the outgoing Benedict will not personally direct the choice of his successor. But the outgoing pontiff has been so instrumental in shaping the policies and personnel of the Roman Catholic church that his presence won?t matter, analysts say.
For 24 years Benedict, as Cardinal Ratzinger, ruled the roost in the Vatican as Pope John Paul II?s enforcer, the powerful head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, and he has overseen a tightening, not a loosening, of church doctrine.
Since 2005 he further consolidated power as pope. So the conclave of cardinals and bishops meeting in Rome next month are there precisely due to their loyalty to Benedict?s vision of the Roman church.
The effect of Benedict?s reign as pope in this sense cannot be understated.
To take one example: In recent years under direct Vatican influence one of the largest Benedictine training schools in the US has, against the sentiment of its teaching clergy, been forced to disallow males and females to study in classes together. So the "Benedict effect" is not something found only in books and encyclicals; it has had an effect?"on the ground," as one Benedictine theologian reports, off the record.?
In a church still quite divided on moral issues, sexuality, modernity, the concept of priest, and so on, it is unclear whether the pope?s resignation, itself an unusual break from the past, may lead to other changes.
Benedict oversaw a 2,000-year-old church with an all-male hierarchy that struggled to respond to a child abuse and pedophilia scandal that reached new excesses two years ago on both sides of the Atlantic during the "year of the priest."
The German pope did not create what some hoped would be a ?Benedict generation? with his robust defense of church doctrines and a controversial return to a more traditional liturgy. While?some conservative religious orders have seen some new applicants in the US, the overall numbers remain a far-cry from those before 1960. Instead, church issues among youth seem pressing, at least in the post-modern West that Benedict had hoped to appeal to with a new Catholic moment. If that moment never comes, says?one New York-based Jesuit, ?The church is going to go one way and the rest of us are going to go another.?
The child abuse scandal, which many dissidents in the church say is a result of the policies of all-male clergy and celibacy (the Vatican denies this) did allow, however briefly, space for different voices to be heard, and for issues treated by church fathers as settled for all time, to be raised.
The issues run from sex and gender to spiritual authority inside the church. They track the shrinking of Mass attendance in the West, the sharp downturn of youth desiring to be priests, and the angry reaction of females (again in the US and Britain) who see roles as clergy closed off when in many churches they are the most faithful.
In the midst of the priestly child abuse scandal, the church issued a circular that put women?s ordination into the same category of disciplinary crimes as heresy, pedophilia, and promoting schism.?Benedict was given credit for suggesting that wearing a condom is acceptable in certain odd cases, such as that of a male prostitute. But with many Catholics no longer even following church teaching on condoms, and with the pope visiting Africa and talking about abstinence and no wearing of condoms, many can?t relate.
The pedophile cases also sparked what many Catholics say is a need for a greater spiritual awakening in a church that has placed a great emphasis on institutional authority; they placed a critical focus on old assumptions that male priests, through the act of their ordination, are holier or more spiritually endowed than ordinary members of the laity.
The British newspaper The Guardian pointed out in an editorial that it could not find a single current liberal candidate for pope, and quoted from Carlo Maria Martini, a cardinal, who said before passing last year that, ?The church is tired in Europe and America. Our culture has aged, our churches are large, our religious houses are empty, and the bureaucracy of the church climbs higher, our rituals and our clothes are pompous?[the church] must recognize her mistakes and must follow a path of radical change, starting with the pope and the bishops.?
Yet many following the daily operations of the Holy See feel there is unlikely to be any revolutionary ?Papal Spring.? Some reform-minded Catholics and many who have left the church say the Vatican is so deeply into the wrong questions, and has been relying so heavily on those who are not interested in questioning in the first place, that any positive reforms will only be on the margins.?
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie sits next to first lady Michelle Obama as President Barack Obama welcomed the governors of the National Governors Association to the 2013 Governors? Dinner at the White House in Washington, Sunday, Feb. 24, 2013. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie sits next to first lady Michelle Obama as President Barack Obama welcomed the governors of the National Governors Association to the 2013 Governors? Dinner at the White House in Washington, Sunday, Feb. 24, 2013. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
WASHINGTON (AP) ? Michelle Obama made a surprise appearance at the Oscars, opening the envelope that contained the name of the Best Picture winner, "Argo."
Appearing via streaming video from the White House, Mrs. Obama said all of the nominees demonstrated that "we can overcome any obstacle."
She said that message is "especially important for our young people" and thanked Hollywood for encouraging children "to open their imaginations."
The first lady was introduced by Jack Nicholson, who noted that the Best Picture trophy is usually announced solo.
Mrs. Obama wore a silver, art deco-inspired gown by Indian-born American fashion designer Naeem Khan. It was the same dress she wore for the Obamas' dinner with the nation's governors at the White House Sunday night.
FILE - In this Sunday, Jan. 6, 2008, file photo, Republican presidential hopeful former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney speaks with Chris Wallace on FOX News Sunday in Manchester, N.H. Wallace said on Sunday, Feb. 24, 2013, that he has landed the first post-election interview with Romney and his wife, Ann. The interview will air on his show next week (AP Photo/LM Otero, File)
FILE - In this Sunday, Jan. 6, 2008, file photo, Republican presidential hopeful former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney speaks with Chris Wallace on FOX News Sunday in Manchester, N.H. Wallace said on Sunday, Feb. 24, 2013, that he has landed the first post-election interview with Romney and his wife, Ann. The interview will air on his show next week (AP Photo/LM Otero, File)
NEW YORK (AP) ? Fox's Chris Wallace has landed the first postelection interview with defeated Republican nominee Mitt Romney and his wife, Ann.
Wallace said on "Fox News Sunday" that the interview will air on his show next week. Additional portions will be on Fox News Channel the next day. Wallace says he'll ask Romney how he has dealt with the defeat, what he plans to do and his thoughts about President Barack Obama's second-term agenda.
Fox News spokeswoman Ashley Nerz says the interview will be taped this week in southern California, where Romney has spent much of his time since the election.
Romney has also said he will speak March 15 to the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington, an annual event that draws leading Republican voices.
ROME (Reuters) - Italians began voting on Sunday in one of the most closely watched elections in years, with markets nervous about whether it will produce a strong government to pull Italy out of recession and help resolve the euro zone debt crisis.
A huge final rally by anti-establishment-comedian-turned-politician Beppe Grillo on Friday before a campaigning ban kicked in has highlighted public anger at traditional parties and added to uncertainty about the election outcome.
Voters started casting their ballots at 0700 GMT. Polling booths will remain open until 2100 GMT on Sunday and between 0600-1400 GMT on Monday. Exit polls will come out soon after voting ends and official results are expected by early Tuesday.
The election is being followed closely by financial markets with memories still fresh of the potentially catastrophic debt crisis that brought technocrat Prime Minister Mario Monti to power more than a year ago.
Italy, the euro zone's third-largest economy, is stuck in deep recession, struggling under a public debt burden second only to Greece's in the 17-member currency bloc and with a public weary of more than a year of harsh austerity policies.
Final polls published two weeks ago showed center-left leader Pier Luigi Bersani with a 5-point lead, but analysts disagree about whether he will be able to form a stable majority that can push though the economic reforms Italy needs.
Bersani is now thought to be just a few points ahead of center-right rival Silvio Berlusconi, the four-times prime minister who has promised tax refunds and staged a media blitz in an attempt to win back voters.
BERLUSCONI CRITICISM
Berlusconi hogged the headlines on Sunday after he broke the campaign silence the previous evening attack magistrates, saying they were "more dangerous than the Sicilian mafia" and had invented allegations he held sex parties to discredit him.
The 76-year-old billionaire, who faces several trials on charges ranging from fraud to sex with an underage prostitute, was criticized by his election rivals for making the comments after the campaigning ban had come into force.
While the center left is still expected to gain control of the lower house, thanks to rules that guarantee a strong majority to whichever party wins the most votes nationally, a much closer battle will be fought in the Senate, which any government also needs to control to be able to pass laws.
Seats in the upper house are awarded on a region-by-region basis, meaning that support in key regions can decisively influence the overall result.
Pollsters still believe the most likely outcome is a center-left government headed by Bersani and possibly backed by Monti, who is leading a centrist coalition.
But strong campaigning by Berlusconi and the fiery Grillo, who has drawn tens of thousands to his election rallies, have thrown the election wide open, causing concern that there may be no clear winner.
Surveys have shown up to 5 million voters are expected to make up their minds at the last minute, adding to uncertainty.
Italy's Interior Ministry urged some 47 million eligible voters to not let bad weather forecasts put them off, and said it was prepared to handle snowy conditions in some northern regions to ensure everyone had a chance to vote.
STAGNANT ECONOMY
Whatever government emerges from the vote will have the task of pulling Italy out of its longest recession for 20 years and reviving an economy largely stagnant for two decades.
The main danger for Italy and the euro zone is a weak government incapable of taking firm action, which would rattle investors and could ignite a new debt crisis.
Monti replaced Berlusconi in November 2011 after Italy came close to Greek-style financial meltdown while the center-right government was embroiled in scandals.
The former European Commissioner launched a tough program of spending cuts, tax hikes and pension reforms which won widespread international backing and helped restore Italy's credibility abroad after the scandals of the Berlusconi era.
Italy's borrowing costs have since fallen sharply after the European Central Bank pledged it was prepared to support countries undertaking reforms by buying unlimited quantities of their bonds on the markets.
But economic austerity has fuelled anger among Italians grappling with rising unemployment and shrinking disposable incomes, encouraging many to turn to Grillo, who has tapped into a national mood of disenchantment.
Three players were ejected from UC Riverside's game at Sacramento State on Friday after a bench-clearing brawl broke out in the third inning.
After a line drive was hit right at the Sacramento State shortstop, UC Riverside's Eddie Young got caught in a rundown between second and third base. Sacramento State's Andrew Ayers was there to make the tag on Young, but then he took it a step further and shoved him too. Young immediately retaliated and threw a punch, causing both benches to clear as a fight ensued in the middle of the field.
?I was just shocked,? said Dave Soto, a father of one of the Sacramento State players said, via KCRA.com.
Young, Ayers and UC Riverside catcher Drake Zarate were all ejected, per NBC Southern California.
As the Sacramento Bee noted, players who get ejected are suspended for four games under NCAA rules.
The debt outlook for Rochester's Mayo Clinic has been dropped to "negative" by Standard & Poor's Ratings Services.
In a statement, S&P credit analyst Martin Arrick said:
"We revised the outlook to negative to reflect our opinion of Mayo Clinic's weaker operating performance, especially in the second half of 2012, and additional debt with this issue, which we did not expect and did not include in our last rating analysis. In addition, Mayo Clinic had to absorb multiple impacts from a sharply lower pension discount rate for the second straight year that, in turn, drove large pension contributions limiting growth in unrestricted cash and investment and lowering unrestricted net assets while raising pro forma leverage to levels we consider high for the rating."
The Rochester Post-Bulletin says Mayo officials will respond to the S&P announcement next week.
The giant health care concern has asked the state to help with a multi-billion-dollar expansion over the next 20 years. Some legislators haven't embraced the proposal which calls for the state to fund $585 million in parking, transportation, utilities, bridges and other improvements, to be financed with bonds that would be repaid with the new taxes generated by the expansion.
The S&P report wasn't all bad, the paper said:
S&P reaffirmed Mayo's AA long-term rating on Mayo's $300 million series 2013 taxable bonds and reaffirmed ratings on other debt issued for, or guaranteed by, Mayo, according to the statement. The reaffirmed ratings were based on the clinic's "solid revenue growth," debt service coverage and growth in unrestricted reserves.
But the statement says Mayo's "overall leverage and unrestricted net assets were hurt by the very large pension charge for the second year in a row due to a lower discount rate. Nevertheless, net patient service revenues and revenues overall improved significantly, as did unrestricted reserves despite a large cash contribution to the pension plan."
This piece is republished with permission from BroBible.com.
By Andy Moore for BroBible.com
Noah Carpenter has spent the last year-and-a-half as a sort-of accidental John Beckwith and Jeremy Grey -- crashing weddings on three different continents, meeting the newlyweds and walking away from each meeting with a hilarious snapshot. How, exactly, did the St. Joseph's senior start this strange -- yet undeniably awesome -- hobby?
"My first crashing was October 13, 2011," he told us over email. "I was studying abroad at the time, and in the month leading up to the first time, I had seen four or five couples already. So I figured this was something I might be seeing consistently, and I thought, 'Who in the world has an album of pictures with random wedding couples?'"
Can't think of anyone else, huh? Below is a quick look at Noah's tour around the wedded world, complete with commentary alongside a few of the pictures. Keep this in mind: The crashings come over a period of only 18 months. Statistically, it's pretty, pretty hard to run into so many parties. How many have you stumbled upon over the last year and a half?
Story continues after the slideshow.
Tower Bridge, London:
"The two couples in England were Brazilian, and after I took the picture, both of the brides asked for money. When I asked why, they responded in broken English, 'Because we allowed you to capture our beauty.' I laughed and told them that if that was the case, they should be paying me. They didn't take that too well, but fortunately their new husbands caught my humor."
Overbrook Station, West Philadelphia
The Louvre, Paris
"The funniest part about the pictures from [Continental] Europe is that only one group of them spoke English, so at first, I had to use hand motions and mime with my camera to ask them. This was a little difficult at first, but after the first few, I memorized how to say 'Can I take a picture with you?' in four different languages to make things easier. Surprisingly, most of the couples thought it was hilarious, and had their professional photographer snap pictures for themselves to keep."
Eiffel Tower, Paris
Galata Tower, Istanbul
Arc de Triomphe, Paris
St. Augustine, Fla.
Manasquan, Jersey Shore:
"As my friend snapped the picture, the groom said, 'This isn't gonna end up on some porno site is it?'"
Noah plans to keep it up until he fills a coffee table book with the photos. When asked if he had a wedding white elephant out there that he wanted to crash (be it a celebrity's or Secretary of the Treasury's daughter's) he said he'd be on the lookout.
Anyway, we fully support this hilarious hobby. And since weddings are undoubtedly one of the most fun things you can go to in your life, the more you can fit yourself into -- uninvited, or not -- the better.
Why certain catalyst materials work more efficiently when they are surrounded by water instead of a gas phase is unclear. RUB chemists have now gleamed some initial answers from computer simulations. They showed that water stabilises specific charge states on the catalyst surface. "The catalyst and the water sort of speak with each other" says Professor Dominik Marx, depicting the underlying complex charge transfer processes. His research group from the Centre for Theoretical Chemistry also calculated how to increase the efficiency of catalytic systems without water by varying pressure and temperature. The researchers describe the results in the journals "Physical Review Letters" and "Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters."
Heterogeneous catalysis: water or gas as the second phase
In heterogeneous catalysis, researchers combine substances with two different phases - usually solid and gas. Chemical reactions work faster at the resulting interfaces than without a catalyst. Industry uses heterogeneous catalysis for many processes, for example to transform alcohols into certain aldehydes. Titanium dioxide with gold particles bonded to the surface, for example, is suitable as the solid phase. Water - instead of a gas - as the second phase has several advantages: environmentally harmful substances which are required in traditional procedures for the oxidation of alcohols can easily be replaced by atmospheric oxygen. Also, the whole reaction in water is very efficient, even at moderate temperatures.
Charge transfer between water and catalyst
The theoretical chemists have studied what happens in the catalysis at the molecular level by means of so-called ab initio molecular dynamics simulations. The result: a charge transfer takes place between the water and the catalyst. Electrons, or more specifically portions of electron densities, are moved between the solid and the liquid phase. The researchers speculate that in this way the liquid phase stabilises charge states on the gold surface. The sites where this occurs could be the active centres of the catalyst, where the chemical reactions work efficiently. Unlike water, a gas phase is not able to "talk" to the catalyst in this way, because no charge transfer is possible with the gas phase.
Increasing the efficiency through thermodynamics
In a further study, the team led by Dominik Marx examined a related metal/oxide catalyst of copper and zinc oxide, which is used for the large-scale industrial synthesis of methanol. As the computer simulations showed, especially the interplay between the solid phase and the gas phase is important here for the efficiency. Depending on the pressure and temperature conditions, hydrogen binds to the catalyst surface and thus indirectly stabilises catalytically active centres that occur in this case due to an electron transfer between the metal and the oxide. "Without the hydrogen, put bluntly the centres would not exist", says Marx. In this way, the thermodynamic conditions in the gas phase put the surface into a certain state which is particularly favourable for the work of the catalyst.
Added value through combination
The two studies thus show that the catalytic efficiency can be controlled both by a solvent and by thermodynamics namely through the pressure and temperature of the gas phase. However, completely different mechanisms are responsible for this, which the researchers were nevertheless able to elucidate using the same simulation methods. This makes the results directly comparable. In this way, the theorists aim to study in future whether they can improve the copper/zinc oxide system even further by replacing the gas phase with a suitable solvent.
###
Funding
The chemists at the RUB explore the active role of the solvent in catalytic reactions in the Excellence Cluster "Ruhr Explores Solvation" RESOLV (EXC 1069), which was approved by the German Research Foundation in June 2012.
Bibliographic records
M. Farnesi Camellone, D.Marx (2013). On the Impact of Solvation on a Au/TiO2 Nanocatalyst in Contact with Water, The Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters, doi: 10.1021/jz301891v
L. Martnez-Surez, J. Frenzel, D. Marx, B. Meyer (2013): Tuning the Reactivity of a Cu/ZnO Nanocatalyst via Gas Phase Pressure, Physical Review Letters, doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.110.086108
Figure online
A figure related to this press release can be found online: http://aktuell.ruhr-uni-bochum.de/pm2013/pm00053.html.en
Further information
Prof. Dr. Dominik Marx, Centre for Theoretical Chemistry, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the Ruhr-Universitt, 44780 Bochum, Germany, Tel. +49/234/32-28083, E-mail: dominik.marx@rub.de
Click for more
Theoretical Chemistry at the RUB
http://www.theochem.rub.de/home.en.html
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
When water speaksPublic release date: 21-Feb-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Why certain catalyst materials work more efficiently when they are surrounded by water instead of a gas phase is unclear. RUB chemists have now gleamed some initial answers from computer simulations. They showed that water stabilises specific charge states on the catalyst surface. "The catalyst and the water sort of speak with each other" says Professor Dominik Marx, depicting the underlying complex charge transfer processes. His research group from the Centre for Theoretical Chemistry also calculated how to increase the efficiency of catalytic systems without water by varying pressure and temperature. The researchers describe the results in the journals "Physical Review Letters" and "Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters."
Heterogeneous catalysis: water or gas as the second phase
In heterogeneous catalysis, researchers combine substances with two different phases - usually solid and gas. Chemical reactions work faster at the resulting interfaces than without a catalyst. Industry uses heterogeneous catalysis for many processes, for example to transform alcohols into certain aldehydes. Titanium dioxide with gold particles bonded to the surface, for example, is suitable as the solid phase. Water - instead of a gas - as the second phase has several advantages: environmentally harmful substances which are required in traditional procedures for the oxidation of alcohols can easily be replaced by atmospheric oxygen. Also, the whole reaction in water is very efficient, even at moderate temperatures.
Charge transfer between water and catalyst
The theoretical chemists have studied what happens in the catalysis at the molecular level by means of so-called ab initio molecular dynamics simulations. The result: a charge transfer takes place between the water and the catalyst. Electrons, or more specifically portions of electron densities, are moved between the solid and the liquid phase. The researchers speculate that in this way the liquid phase stabilises charge states on the gold surface. The sites where this occurs could be the active centres of the catalyst, where the chemical reactions work efficiently. Unlike water, a gas phase is not able to "talk" to the catalyst in this way, because no charge transfer is possible with the gas phase.
Increasing the efficiency through thermodynamics
In a further study, the team led by Dominik Marx examined a related metal/oxide catalyst of copper and zinc oxide, which is used for the large-scale industrial synthesis of methanol. As the computer simulations showed, especially the interplay between the solid phase and the gas phase is important here for the efficiency. Depending on the pressure and temperature conditions, hydrogen binds to the catalyst surface and thus indirectly stabilises catalytically active centres that occur in this case due to an electron transfer between the metal and the oxide. "Without the hydrogen, put bluntly the centres would not exist", says Marx. In this way, the thermodynamic conditions in the gas phase put the surface into a certain state which is particularly favourable for the work of the catalyst.
Added value through combination
The two studies thus show that the catalytic efficiency can be controlled both by a solvent and by thermodynamics namely through the pressure and temperature of the gas phase. However, completely different mechanisms are responsible for this, which the researchers were nevertheless able to elucidate using the same simulation methods. This makes the results directly comparable. In this way, the theorists aim to study in future whether they can improve the copper/zinc oxide system even further by replacing the gas phase with a suitable solvent.
###
Funding
The chemists at the RUB explore the active role of the solvent in catalytic reactions in the Excellence Cluster "Ruhr Explores Solvation" RESOLV (EXC 1069), which was approved by the German Research Foundation in June 2012.
Bibliographic records
M. Farnesi Camellone, D.Marx (2013). On the Impact of Solvation on a Au/TiO2 Nanocatalyst in Contact with Water, The Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters, doi: 10.1021/jz301891v
L. Martnez-Surez, J. Frenzel, D. Marx, B. Meyer (2013): Tuning the Reactivity of a Cu/ZnO Nanocatalyst via Gas Phase Pressure, Physical Review Letters, doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.110.086108
Figure online
A figure related to this press release can be found online: http://aktuell.ruhr-uni-bochum.de/pm2013/pm00053.html.en
Further information
Prof. Dr. Dominik Marx, Centre for Theoretical Chemistry, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the Ruhr-Universitt, 44780 Bochum, Germany, Tel. +49/234/32-28083, E-mail: dominik.marx@rub.de
Click for more
Theoretical Chemistry at the RUB
http://www.theochem.rub.de/home.en.html
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Feb. 20, 2013 ? University of California, San Diego bioengineers have demonstrated in a study in pigs that a new injectable hydrogel can repair damage from heart attacks, help the heart grow new tissue and blood vessels, and get the heart moving closer to how a healthy heart should. The results of the study were published Feb. 20 in Science Translational Medicine and clear the way for clinical trials to begin this year in Europe. The gel is injected through a catheter without requiring surgery or general anesthesia -- a less invasive procedure for patients.?
There are an estimated 785,000 new heart attack cases in the United States each year, with no established treatment for repairing the resulting damage to cardiac tissue. Lead researcher Karen Christman, a professor in the Department of Bioengineering at the UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering, said the gel forms a scaffold in damaged areas of the heart, encouraging new cell growth and repair. Because the gel is made from heart tissue taken from pigs, the damaged heart responds positively, creating a harmonious environment for rebuilding, rather than setting off a chain of adverse immune system defenses.
"While more people today are initially surviving heart attacks, many will eventually go into heart failure," said Christman. "Our data show that this hydrogel can increase cardiac muscle and reduce scar tissue in the region damaged by the heart attack, which prevents heart failure. These results suggest this may be a novel minimally invasive therapy to prevent heart failure after a heart attack in humans."
The hydrogel is made from cardiac connective tissue that is stripped of heart muscle cells through a cleansing process, freeze-dried and milled into powder form, and then liquefied into a fluid that can be easily injected into the heart. Once it hits body temperature, the liquid turns into a semi-solid, porous gel that encourages cells to repopulate areas of damaged cardiac tissue and to improve heart function, according to Christman. The material is also biocompatible; animals treated with the hydrogel suffered no adverse affects such as inflammation, lesions or arrhythmic heart beating, according to safety experiments conducted as part of the study. Further tests with human blood samples showed that the gel had no affect on the blood's clotting ability, which underscores the biocompatibility of the treatment for use in humans.
San Diego-based startup, Ventrix, Inc., which Christman co-founded, has licensed the technology for development and commercialization. Christman also serves on the company's board. "We are excited and encouraged by the results of the study leading to a novel regenerative medicine solution for cardiac repair. The technology offers the potential for a longer and better quality of life for millions of heart attack sufferers," said Adam Kinsey, the CEO of Ventrix.
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of California - San Diego.
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Journal Reference:
S. B. Seif-Naraghi, J. M. Singelyn, M. A. Salvatore, K. G. Osborn, J. J. Wang, U. Sampat, O. L. Kwan, G. M. Strachan, J. Wong, P. J. Schup-Magoffin, R. L. Braden, K. Bartels, J. A. DeQuach, M. Preul, A. M. Kinsey, A. N. DeMaria, N. Dib, K. L. Christman. Safety and Efficacy of an Injectable Extracellular Matrix Hydrogel for Treating Myocardial Infarction. Science Translational Medicine, 2013; 5 (173): 173ra25 DOI: 10.1126/scitranslmed.3005503
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Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) -- A Senate committee on Tuesday endorsed a proposal to amend the Kansas Constitution to give the Legislature sole authority to determine funding for public schools, thereby cutting out the courts.
The proposal comes after a Shawnee County District Court ruled in January that the state's school finance system was unconstitutional and ordered legislators to increase spending by more than $440 million for the next school year.
Supporters say that while the judicial branch has the authority to decide whether legislative policies are constitutional, courts overstep their boundaries when they require increases in state spending on education.
The voice vote by the Senate Judiciary Committee sends the measure to the full Senate, where Republicans outnumber Democrats 32-8. Some senators objected to the amendment being placed on the August 2014 ballot, saying that's when many families are on vacation and they are the ones most affected by changes in education policy.
"This is about, supposedly, a crucial part of the constitution and state government," said Sen. David Haley, ranking Democrat on the committee from Kansas City. "We want to get the better bang for the buck. I don't know why we wouldn't want to do it."
Sen. Forrest Knox, an Altoona Republican, said voters had to take responsibility for their own actions and go to the polls. He also suggested that while primary elections see lower voter turnout than general elections, those who do vote are better educated on the issues.
The proposed amendment says definitely that only the Legislature can appropriate money, not the courts nor governor, though the chief executive's signature would still be required for any spending bill to take effect.
In addition, the governor could still veto any spending bill he disagreed with and legislators could still attempt an override.
Twenty-seven of 40 senators and 84 of 125 House members would have to vote for the measure to put the question to voters. Senators approved a similar measure in 2005 by a 30-9 margin, but it failed to gain enough support in the House. Republicans now outnumber Democrats in the House 92-33.
In 2005, like now, legislators were responding to a court ruling that found the school finance formula unconstitutional. In the end, Kansas increased its funding for public education by nearly $1 billion.
However, those increases were eroded by the effects of the Great Recession, which forced the state to reduce education funding and prompting the latest lawsuit.
Since then-White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel convinced House Democrats to bite down hard and vote for a climate change bill that the Senate could never pass, a legislative effort to induce a carbon payment scheme has been a no-go, even for the party of the president. But in his inauguration, Barack Obama promised that he'd make progress. He feels guilty that he promised to pass legislation in his first term and did not. There are a bunch of things he could do.
The Environmental Protection Agency can regulate carbon dioxide emissions. All the EPA has to do is show that CO2 emissions cause harm. Once duly shown, the EPA can impose limits on emissions. In 2012, the EPA found that CO2 emissions were sufficiently harmful, and it has since been working on a slew of new regulations. They've yet to be released. ?(The Supreme Court, in 2007, ruled that the EPA would be negligent if it did not regularly subject all sorts of emissions to what's known as an "endangerment" standard.) ?
Emissions from older coal power plants are particularly ripe. But the economic costs of tightly regulating emissions from coal plants are fairly high. Unilateral action would have been politically difficult in his first term given the state of the economy. Look at where the oil and coal industry's jobs are concentrated.?
But now, as Ron Brownstein notes, the economy is getting better. And the energy market in the United States is changing rapidly. Fracking, which has already spurred a Hollywood protest movie, is on the rise. It now accounts for 29 percent of all energy generated inside the United States. ?Environmentalists don't like fracking because breaking through the ground to release hydrocarbons trapped in shale releases all sorts of bad chemicals into the surrounding environment and steals water from natural springs. It emits methane, a greenhouse, in significant quantities.
But the existing science suggests that fracking is orders of magnitude less harmful than CO2 emissions from coal plants. Fracking isn't safe. It has an awful name. But it's a much better near-term alternative than new coal plants. It is a transition fuel; a way-station between oil and coal, on the one side of history, and renewable energy, like water and solar power, on the other.
The Department of Energy says that if cars ran on fuel from natural gas rather than on fuel from oil refineries, CO2 emissions could decline as much as 90 percent. If Obama imposes modest caps on emissions from existing coal plants, the U.S. could see its CO2 emissions levels stabilize at roughly the levels they were before George W. Bush took office.?
A rapid transition from coal and refined oil to natural gas is not in the cards; cars need to be made to slurp it and a lot more of it needs to be produced before there is parity. But government-imposed emissions caps on coal plants won't have nearly the economic bite they would have had a decade ago, and doing so would encourage companies to shift future investment.
And though the politics remain tricky, it's not like the natural industry won't have its lobbyists, too, fighting tooth and frack against Big Coal in Congressional districts where jobs are at stake.
DETROIT (Reuters) - Chrysler Group LLC said on Thursday it was recalling 370,297 pickup trucks and sport utility vehicles globally because a loose fastener could cause the rear axle to lock up and make a driver lose control.
The recall, which expands on another recall announced last fall, affects 278,222 vehicles in the United States, 63,321 in Canada, 23,767 in Mexico and 4,987 in the rest of the world, Chrysler said.
Chrysler, which is controlled by Italy's Fiat, said it was recalling some Ram 1500 pickups from model years 2009 through 2012, Dodge Dakota pickup trucks from model years 2009 through 2011, and 2009-model Chrysler Aspen and Dodge Durango full-size SUVs.
A Chrysler spokesman said the U.S. automaker was aware of 15 accidents related to the recall, but no injuries.
Last October, Chrysler recalled more than 44,000 Dakotas and Ram 1500 pickups for the same problem. Further review of customer complaints and field reports, however, showed the problem also existed for vehicles not covered by the first recall, according to documents filed with the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
Chrysler said some rear axles were assembled with a fastener that can loosen and lead to failure. It said its dealers will install a retainer, at no cost to customers, that secures the fastener.
The recall was expected to begin in March, according to NHTSA documents.
(Reporting By Ben Klayman in Detroit; Editing by M.D. Golan)
(Reuters) - CBS Corp reported a higher profit for the fourth quarter on Thursday, boosted by political advertising at its flagship broadcast network and higher affiliate and subscription fees at cable channels.
Net earnings rose to $393 million, or 60 cents a share, from $370 million, or 55 cents a share, in the year-ago quarter. Revenue rose 2 percent to $3.61 billion.
On an adjusted basis, CBS reported earnings of $414 million, up from $377 million a year earlier. Adjusted earnings per share reached 64 cents, the company said.
Content licensing and distribution revenue fell 7 percent from a year earlier, primarily due to the timing of payments for online streaming of CBS shows, the company said.
CBS also announced plans to repurchase an additional $1 billion of its Class B common stock in 2013, a near doubling of its earlier buyback commitment.
CBS shares fell 1.7 percent to $42.20 in after-hours trading, down from their close at $42.94 on the New York Stock Exchange.
(Reporting By Lisa Richwine; Editing by Gary Hill and Leslie Adler)
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Public release date: 25-Feb-2013
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